So today we finished filing the top gallery ovals. Then we checked to make sure that the curve was still the same size that we made it originally. We then took two small silver blocks and soldered them onto the finger curve portion to coordinate with the tabs that we left on the ends of the top gallery section. This was quite and interesting task to tackle. The piece wanted to slide around and not stay in place and we had to use a huge flame, but also keep the piece from drooping down and out of the original curve we had put in for the finger size.
After that block was soldered on, we soldered on the top gallery wire using binding wire to keep the pieces lined up correctly.
Then we used a micro needle burnisher to scribe lines on the bottom section based off of the out most portion of the top curve. We then sawed those pieces out, and began filing. My bottom section still has a lot of filing to go, and of course we still need to drill the hole out of the center of the bottom gallery.
This project has been challenging, more so because I'm being extremely cautious so I don't have to start over again.... but it's a technique that seems to be able to be applied to a ton of different designs with ease. If I wanted to do this sometime down the road with different shaped side stones from the center stone, I would just make each gallery section separately on a flat piece of metal the same as the steps above. Then put the pieces together in clay in the manner I wanted them to relate to each other and super glue and solder together.
Hope you all (or 1....ha!) are enjoying the blog! Have a nice weekend.
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